Boris Johnson has been told his Downing Street office has been targeted with “multiple” suspected infections using Pegasus, the sophisticated hacking software made by Israel’s NSO group, which can turn a phone into a remote listening device, it was claimed on Monday.
A report, released by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto on Monday, said it believed that No 10 had fallen prey to a spyware attack in 2020 and 2021, with the United Arab Emirates being the suspected orchestrator.
Pegasus is the hacking software – or spyware – developed, marketed and licensed to governments around the world by the Israeli firm NSO Group. It has the capability to infect phones running either iOS or Android operating systems.
Citizen Lab, considered among the world’s leading experts in detecting digital attacks, announced it had taken the rare step of notifying Whitehall of the attack as it “believes that our actions can reduce harm”.
In a statement, Citizen Lab said: “We confirm that in 2020 and 2021 we observed and notified the government of the United Kingdom of multiple suspected instances of Pegasus spyware infections within official UK networks. These included: the prime minister’s office (10 Downing Street) [and] the Foreign and Commonwealth Office … The suspected infection at the UK prime minister’s office was associated with a Pegasus operator we link to the UAE.”
However, the researchers were not able to identify the specific individuals within No 10 and the Foreign Office who are suspected of having been hacked.
The Biden administration took the extraordinary step of placing NSO on a US blacklist last November, saying it had evidence the company had sold surveillance spyware to foreign governments that had used it for “transnational repression”. At the time, an NSO spokesperson said it was ‘“dismayed by the decision”.
The revelations will raise significant questions about a possible national security breach at the highest levels of the British government.
The prime minister’s office and the UAE government have been approached for comment.
An NSO spokesperson said: “NSO continues to be targeted by a number of politically motivated advocacy organisations like Citizen Lab and Amnesty to produce inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports based on vague and incomplete information.
“We have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit. However, information raised regarding these allegations are, yet again, false and could not be related to NSO products for technological and contractual reasons.”
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